More members of Mexico’s violent Sinaloa and Juárez cartels have been brought to justice.
More members of Mexico’s violent Sinaloa and Juárez cartels have been brought to justice.
Rafael Humberto Celaya Valenzuela, 41, was convicted October 15 of conspiring to distribute controlled substances, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. A jury in the U.S. District Court in the U.S. state of New Hampshire came to the verdict after three co-conspirators – Manuel Gutiérrez
Guzmán, Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela and Jesús
Gonzalo Palazuelos Soto – all pleaded guilty to working for the Sinaloa Cartel.
FBI agents started pursuing the cartel operatives in early 2010, according to U.S. federal court records. The agents posed as members of a European organized crime organization so they could meet the suspects, who were trying to establish new cocaine trafficking routes from South America to the U.S., Canada and Europe. They finally arranged meetings in the U.S. cities of Miami, Fla., Boston, Mass., and in Portsmouth and New Castle, N.H., and in Madrid, Spain – all while documenting their discussions with audio and video tapes that were played for the Celaya Valenzuela jury.
The four suspects put 346 kilograms of cocaine on a cargo ship that left a port in Algeciras, Spain, on July 27, 2012 – but with the cooperation of the Spanish National Police, FBI agents seized the cargo on August 7 and arrested the cartel operatives in Madrid. They were later extradited to New Hampshire. Each faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, with a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. Gutiérrez
Guzmán, Zazueta Valenzuela and Palazuelos Soto are scheduled to be sentenced between December 22, 2014 and January 15, 2015. Celaya Valenzuela, who turned down a plea deal that stipulated he’d spend between 10 and 20 years in prison, will be sentenced on January 22.
“[The] guilty verdict, together with the guilty pleas of the defendant’s co-conspirators, demonstrates the Department of Justice’s commitment to disrupting and dismantling international drug trafficking organizations wherever they seek to peddle their poison,” said U.S. Attorney John Kacavas.
GutiérrezGuzmán is a cousin of longtime Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who has been incarcerated since Mexican marines captured him in February. His guilty plea marks another major blow to the cartel, which is one of the world’s largest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations. It operates in 50 countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, and Australia, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
El Chapo was Mexico’s most wanted drug lord when marines captured him in February at a seaside apartment complex in the city of Mazatlán. He’s behind bars in a Mexican prison, accused of trafficking cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine worth billions of dollars.
El Chapo and his top lieutenant, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, are accused of committing “hundreds of acts of violence, including murders, assaults, kidnappings, assassinations and acts of torture,” according to a 21-count indictment recently unsealed in the Eastern District of New York.
Mexican security forces are looking for El Mayo, who is wanted in Mexico and in the United States for drug trafficking and related offenses.
Alleged Juárez Cartel kingpin ‘El Viceroy’ captured
For years, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the alleged leader of the Juárez Cartel, evaded capture by moving frequently and at times using false identification. But it was his fake identification card that gave him away, when Mexican Federal Police (FP) spotted it and placed him under arrest at a traffic checkpoint in the northern city of Torreón on October 9.
“He was one of the most important men that Mexican justice had to capture,” Mexican National Security Council head Monte Alejandro Rubido said.
At the checkpoint, FP agents questioned the authenticity of the identification card presented by Carrillo Fuentest – also known as “El Viceroy”. When he admitted it was false and acknowledged his true identity, FP agents placed him and his bodyguard under arrest, and seized the two vehicles.
The Mexican government had been offering a reward of more than $2 million (USD) for information leading to the capture of El Viceroy. Prosecutors had obtained five arrest warrants for him on charges of drug trafficking and related crimes. El Viceroy is also wanted in the United States, where he is facing federal charges in Texas for drug trafficking, money laundering, and ordering homicides to further the cartel’s criminal enterprises.
“Carrillo Fuentes … facilitated murder and violence in Mexico while fueling addiction in the United States and across the world,” DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said.
More members of Mexico’s violent Sinaloa and Juárez cartels have been brought to justice.
Rafael Humberto Celaya Valenzuela, 41, was convicted October 15 of conspiring to distribute controlled substances, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. A jury in the U.S. District Court in the U.S. state of New Hampshire came to the verdict after three co-conspirators – Manuel Gutiérrez
Guzmán, Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela and Jesús
Gonzalo Palazuelos Soto – all pleaded guilty to working for the Sinaloa Cartel.
FBI agents started pursuing the cartel operatives in early 2010, according to U.S. federal court records. The agents posed as members of a European organized crime organization so they could meet the suspects, who were trying to establish new cocaine trafficking routes from South America to the U.S., Canada and Europe. They finally arranged meetings in the U.S. cities of Miami, Fla., Boston, Mass., and in Portsmouth and New Castle, N.H., and in Madrid, Spain – all while documenting their discussions with audio and video tapes that were played for the Celaya Valenzuela jury.
The four suspects put 346 kilograms of cocaine on a cargo ship that left a port in Algeciras, Spain, on July 27, 2012 – but with the cooperation of the Spanish National Police, FBI agents seized the cargo on August 7 and arrested the cartel operatives in Madrid. They were later extradited to New Hampshire. Each faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, with a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. Gutiérrez
Guzmán, Zazueta Valenzuela and Palazuelos Soto are scheduled to be sentenced between December 22, 2014 and January 15, 2015. Celaya Valenzuela, who turned down a plea deal that stipulated he’d spend between 10 and 20 years in prison, will be sentenced on January 22.
“[The] guilty verdict, together with the guilty pleas of the defendant’s co-conspirators, demonstrates the Department of Justice’s commitment to disrupting and dismantling international drug trafficking organizations wherever they seek to peddle their poison,” said U.S. Attorney John Kacavas.
GutiérrezGuzmán is a cousin of longtime Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who has been incarcerated since Mexican marines captured him in February. His guilty plea marks another major blow to the cartel, which is one of the world’s largest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations. It operates in 50 countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, and Australia, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
El Chapo was Mexico’s most wanted drug lord when marines captured him in February at a seaside apartment complex in the city of Mazatlán. He’s behind bars in a Mexican prison, accused of trafficking cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine worth billions of dollars.
El Chapo and his top lieutenant, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, are accused of committing “hundreds of acts of violence, including murders, assaults, kidnappings, assassinations and acts of torture,” according to a 21-count indictment recently unsealed in the Eastern District of New York.
Mexican security forces are looking for El Mayo, who is wanted in Mexico and in the United States for drug trafficking and related offenses.
Alleged Juárez Cartel kingpin ‘El Viceroy’ captured
For years, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the alleged leader of the Juárez Cartel, evaded capture by moving frequently and at times using false identification. But it was his fake identification card that gave him away, when Mexican Federal Police (FP) spotted it and placed him under arrest at a traffic checkpoint in the northern city of Torreón on October 9.
“He was one of the most important men that Mexican justice had to capture,” Mexican National Security Council head Monte Alejandro Rubido said.
At the checkpoint, FP agents questioned the authenticity of the identification card presented by Carrillo Fuentest – also known as “El Viceroy”. When he admitted it was false and acknowledged his true identity, FP agents placed him and his bodyguard under arrest, and seized the two vehicles.
The Mexican government had been offering a reward of more than $2 million (USD) for information leading to the capture of El Viceroy. Prosecutors had obtained five arrest warrants for him on charges of drug trafficking and related crimes. El Viceroy is also wanted in the United States, where he is facing federal charges in Texas for drug trafficking, money laundering, and ordering homicides to further the cartel’s criminal enterprises.
“Carrillo Fuentes … facilitated murder and violence in Mexico while fueling addiction in the United States and across the world,” DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said.
I hope that in these cases the law that the green one proposed is applied – a life sentence – that and nothing less is what all these thieves and people who cause great damage to society deserve.